


Absolution

by orphan_account



Series: Angel Baby [7]
Category: Late Night Host RPF
Genre: Crying, Forgiveness, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Sad, Sobbing, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-15
Updated: 2014-11-15
Packaged: 2018-02-25 11:11:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2619647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hard to believe it had only been a month since the devil fell for the angel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Absolution

Seth finds Jimmy standing at the edge of pier. It’s 5:30 in the evening in the middle of November, and there isn’t a soul around, save for the two of them. A few sail boats bob in the chill water. Jimmy turns around suddenly when he hears someone approach.

“Hey, can I just have some peace and qu—”

He stops as soon as he sees who has found him. Jimmy swallows and wipes his eyes, but his face is tear-streaked and he isn’t fooling Seth of anything.

Seth gets it now.

_I can see him._

“How…? Why are you here?”

“I didn’t want to have your death on my conscience,” he answers honestly. “Or on my voicemail.”

Jimmy ducks his head.

“I thought I’d be gone by the time you heard it.”

“I heard it five times before I called your wife. She panicked when I told her what you said. She said you’d be here.”

Jimmy looks back up, horror in his eyes. He has the face of a man who has just discovered that he is not as good at hiding as he thought he was. The disbelief quickly morphs into dejection.

“I’ve come here before. I get like this sometimes.”

Jimmy turns back to the railing around the pier and looks out over the edge.

_It would be so easy…_

“What would killing yourself prove?”

Jimmy’s tears flow fresh.

“That I’m guilty. That I’m a coward. That I deserve punishment.”

“What about your family? Your baby girl?”

Sobs. He just keeps sobbing and gripping the railing like it’s keeping him alive.

“What you did to me was—,” Seth chokes. “When you raped me, twice, that was—that was horrific. But your little girl needs you more than the level to which I want to see you hurt.”

Jimmy turns back around.

“So what am I supposed to do, Seth? What the hell am I supposed to do?”

All of a sudden, he has Seth by his collar, sobbing violently into his shoulder. Seth quickly yanks him back by his hair. Jimmy grunts in pain.

"You know how you can make it up to me?" Seth asks.

"How?" he asks, voice cracking.

Seth’s face contorts in barely withheld fury.

“In your message, you said you loved me and that you wanted to change. Was that true?”

“Yes. God, yes.”

“Are you willing to do anything it takes to fix this? Truly?”

“Yes, please, God. I promise.”

“You won’t deny me?”

“No, Seth. Never. Please, tell me what to do!”

Seth releases Jimmy and pulls back from him.

“I forgive you, Jimmy. All you have to do now is keep from betraying the promises you made to me.”

Jimmy looks at him in astonishment, but doesn’t say a word.

Seth continues, “Right now you need to call your wife to come get you because I don’t trust you to drive a car. I expect to see you at work on Monday. Can you promise me that?”

Jimmy doesn’t answer, which is answer enough.

Seth turns and walks away. He walks away with his head held high and legs steady and sure. He makes it all the way back to his car before the tears come.

Jimmy watches Seth walk away until he can’t even see him over the horizon. He falls to his knees on the concrete pier and drops his head into his hands. After a moment, he pulls his cell from his pocket to call Nancy. His finger hovers over the call button.

_Press it. Just press it._

Instead, he chucks his phone into the water. He gets the stupid idea that “phone throwers” could make for a good bit when he realizes that it won’t matter in the next sixty seconds.

He climbs up the railing and praises himself for his good balance. He crosses himself and takes the plunge.

Something Seth told that first day suddenly sticks out in his mind.

_“Yeah, well, if I’m an angel that would make you the devil.”_

_He was right,_ Jimmy thinks before the icy waters open up around him.


End file.
